BWW Reviews: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, Arts Theatre, May 23 2012

Becky Brewis

The well-proportioned but smallish space of The Arts Theatre is a perfect venue for a show that recreates the informal atmosphere of a night at the music hall. Director Matthew Gould throws in a few touches of Victoriana too, with stiff, gaudy curtains flanking the stage like cardboard layers in a model theatre, and rosy-cheeked actors welcoming us at the door to “the Music Hall Royale” as they hand round song sheets for the interval sing-along. After a successful run at the Landor Theatre, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is clearly at home in the West End.

The construct of Rupert Holmes’ lively piece works well: a play within a play, or rather a musical within a play. One is a line-up of regular favourites in a rather camp music hall, and the other is what this bawdy lot are going to entertain us with – a whodunit with an extra dimension: Dickens’ famously unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Like all good musicals it is the songs that really tell the story. But although the cast sings well – especially the women, with Wendi Peters (Coronation Street’s Cilla Battersby-Brown) Natalie Day and Victoria Farley standing out – some of the words, particularly in the fast-paced, high tension songs, are difficult to catch. It is a shame as the lyrics of this multiple Tony Award-winning piece are obviously witty.

The presence of an onstage band, though, (and being allowed to take drinks in from the bar) adds to the variety act feel and rescues the piece from too-harsh criticism. There is a genuinely buzzing atmosphere in the auditorium and a lot of energy on stage.

That said, it isn’t until the second half that the theatrical posturing and kitschness really pay off: the play is a classic music hall combination of pomp and respectability being offset (and poked fun at) by larger-than-life characters, doing things they shouldn’t. But it is the idea of a hero in limbo that really drives the piece. When Dickens’ plot screeches to an abrupt halt at the end of act one, it falls to the audience to disentangle his knot of ne’er-do-wells and make a narrative out of it. We decide how the story ends, throwing up some unlikely (and very funny) combinations of villains, detectives and lovers, and the actors count our votes and democratically perform the ending we’ve chosen.

It’s good fun, and actually gets across the story of Edwin Drood (what there is of it) clearly, while being a hugely creative piece in its own right. Denis Delahunt is a charming compere, and as he leads us in this strange Victorian parlour game, the spirit of the music hall is contagious.

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